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No. 5 Stanford Takes Down No. 12 Arizona

No. 5 Stanford Women's Gymnastics struggled at times, but still had enough to hang onto a 194.600 to 194.125 victory over No. 12 University of Arizona. The Cardinal (1-1, 1-0 Pac-10) were missing a lot of their mainstays, but had some strong performances on vault and bar to hang onto the victory in their first Pac-10 meet.

The Cardinal received strong performances from freshman Danielle Ikoma and senior Stephanie Gentry on vault, each earning 9.825 scores. The Cardinal was most solid in this event, with all of their competitors scoring a 9.700 or better, and helping establish an early lead.

Stanford moved onto bars and had another solid run with junior Kelly Fee scoring a 9.825. Sophomore Allyse Ishino continued her strong return and scored a 9.825 in her difficult routine.

On beam and floor exercises the Cardinal struggled, but still had some strong individual performances. In the beam Ishino scored a 9.800 and senior Lauren Elmore scored a 9.750. On floor, Fee put forth a stellar routine and was given a 9.875 for her efforts.

With such a large roster this season, head coach Kristen Smyth has stressed getting experience in for her team so she can have lots of options later in the season.

'We tried to tap into our depth and get more experience in all areas of competition,' said Smyth. 'It will take some time for us to get everything together and be at a point where everyone can be consistent in their contributions. I would have liked our team to have a little more focus today and come together more as a unit.'

Smyth also had some positives about moving forward in the season. 'I really liked Stephanie's (Gentry) vault and Allyse and Lauren Elmore performed admirably on beam. I think we need to be more aggressive and work on staying focused so we can't have the lapses that we had today. UCLA is a great team and we will need to have a strong effort to get a win down there, I hope our team can use today as a wake up call and come together for next week.'